Spring Loaded Disposable Glove Box Dispenser

ABSTRACT

The present invention is a spring loaded disposable glove box dispenser. The invention consists of a cylindrical shell which has two sections. The lower section has a flat plate with a compressed spring under said plate. Inside the cylindrical shell are flexible protrusions affixed to the sides of the cylindrical shell. These flexible protrusions are designed to allow the flat plate to pass them as said plate is pushed upward by the spring but do not allow the flat plate to be pressed downward to recompress the spring. A plurality of disposable gloves are stored above the flat plate. Gloves are removed from the device via an aperture at the top of the shell. As gloves are removed, the spring expands pushing the flat plate and the supply of gloves towards the top of the device.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

Provisional Application No. 62/937,743

Filing Date: Nov. 19, 2019

Design Patent Application No. 29/755,720

Filing Date: Oct. 22, 2020

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

This invention was not made by an agency of the United States Government nor under a contract with an agency of the United States Government.

THE NAME OF THE PARTIES TO JOINT RESEARCH AGREEMENT

Not Applicable.

INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE OF MATERIAL SUBMITTED ON A COMPACT DISC OR AS A TEXT FILE VIA THE OFFICE ELECTRONIC FILING SYSTEM (EFS-WEB)

Not Applicable.

STATEMENT REGARDING PRIOR DISCLOSURES BY THE INVENTOR OR A JOINT INVENTOR

Not Applicable.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention

Disposable gloves are widely used in many businesses such as health care, food service, personal care (hair stylists, barbers, etc.) and cleaning services to protect the wearer and often the recipient of the services from the transfer of harmful bacteria or viruses. Disposable gloves are manufactured from a variety of materials including latex, nitrile rubber, neoprene, and poly vinyl chloride (PVC).

Disposable gloves are generally retailed in rectangular boxes with 100 pairs of gloves per box. The gloves are removed from the box via an aperture on one side of the box in a similar manner to removing facial tissues from a tissue box. Problems arise when a majority of the gloves have been removed from the box and the soon to be wearer must reach into the box to remove a pair of gloves. This can result in contamination of the remaining gloves in the box or the accidental removal of more than a single pair of gloves, causing gloves to be wasted.

Description of Related Art

U.S. Pat. No. 4,997,105 (Glove Dispensing System) is a device that stores a plurality of gloves and has a spring loaded base which pushes the remaining gloves in the device towards an aperture in the device as gloves are removed. The device includes a hinged cover for the aperture.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,088,620 (Glove Dispenser) is a device that stores a plurality of gloves inside a flexible mammilated shaped element which in turn is inside the dispensing device. Gloves are removed from the wide end of the glove containing element. A spring loaded disc is affixed to the opposite end of said glove containing element.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is a spring loaded disposable glove box dispenser. The invention consists of a cylindrical shell which has two sections. The lower section has a flat plate with a compressed spring under said plate. Inside the cylindrical shell are flexible protrusions affixed to the sides of the cylindrical shell. These flexible protrusions are designed to allow the flat plate to pass them as said plate is pushed upward by the spring but do not allow the flat plate to be pressed downward to recompress the spring. A plurality of disposable gloves are stored above the flat plate. Gloves are removed from the device via an aperture at the top of the shell. As gloves are removed, the spring expands pushing the flat plate and the supply of gloves towards the top of the device.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING

FIG. 1 is a top front view of the invention showing the upper section of the cylindrical outer shell (10), the lower section of the cylindrical outer shell (15), and the top aperture (20) with gloves (1) partially through said aperture (20).

FIG. 2 is a partial cross section view of the invention showing the upper section of the cylindrical outer shell (10), the lower section of the cylindrical outer shell (15), the interior flat plate (30), and the compressed spring (40).

FIG. 3 is a cross section view of the invention showing the upper section of the cylindrical outer shell (10), the lower section of the cylindrical outer shell (15), the interior flat plate (30), the spring (40) and the protrusions (50) that prevent the flat plate (30) from being pushed downward to recompress the spring (40). Gloves (1) are also shown.

FIG. 4 is a top view of the invention showing the upper section of the cylindrical outer shell (10), the top cover of the cylindrical outer shell (11) and the aperture (20) with gloves (1) partially out of the aperture (20).

FIG. 5 is a view showing the two sections of the cylindrical outer shell: the upper section (10) and the lower section (15).

FIG. 6 is a bottom view of the invention showing the lower section of the cylindrical outer shell (15) and the bottom cover (12).

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is a spring loaded disposable glove box dispenser. The invention consists of a cylindrical outer shell divided into two sections (10, 15) with each section having a cover (11, 12). A plurality of disposable gloves (1) are stored in the device. The top cover (11) has an aperture (20) for the removal of the gloves stored in the dispenser.

A spring is attached to the inside portion of the bottom cover (12) of the outer shell so that the spring (40) is in the interior of the cylindrical outer shell (15). A flat plate or disc (30) is attached to the opposite end of the spring (40). A plurality of disposable gloves (1) are on the opposite side of the flat plate (40) from the spring (40).

The cylindrical outer shell is in two sections to allow for the loading of the upper section of the cylindrical outer shell (10) with disposable gloves (1). The lower section of the cylindrical shell (15) with the compressed spring (40) and flat plate (30) is then joined with the upper section of the cylindrical outer shell (10) to form the spring loaded disposable glove box dispenser.

As gloves (1) are removed from the dispenser via the aperture (20), the spring (40) expands and pushes the flat plat (30) and subsequently the gloves remaining in the dispenser towards the aperture (20) at the top of the dispenser. Along the interior sides of the upper section of the cylindrical shell (10) are flexible protrusions (50). The protrusions (50) are designed to allow the flat plate (30) to pass them as said plate is pushed upward by the expansion of the spring (40) but do not allow the flat plate (30) to be pressed downward to recompress the spring (40).

Although the preferred embodiment of the invention utilizes a cylindrical shell for the dispenser, it should be noted that the invention is not limited to this configuration. Other shapes such as square cubes or rectangular boxes could be substituted for the cylindrical shell and the alternative shaped embodiment utilized in the same manner as the preferred embodiment.

In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the cylindrical outer shell (10, 15) along with its top and bottom covers (11, 12) are constructed of cardboard or heavy weight paper. The aperture (20) is formed by the removal of a perforated section of the top cover (11) of the outer shell. The flat plate (30) and the side protrusions (50) are constructed from plastic with the spring (40) constructed from a metal alloy. It should be noted that other materials could be utilized in the construction of the various parts of the invention, limited only by the materials suitability for the purpose.

Although the drawings (FIG. 1 through FIG. 6) and the above description represent the preferred embodiment of the invention, it should be recognized that the invention is not limited to the exact configuration and materials described above.

Potential US patent classification for this invention:

-   -   Class 221: Article Dispensing     -   Sub-class 59: Spring Biased

The present invention described above and illustrated in FIG. 1 through FIG. 6 is visualized as the preferred embodiment of the invention. It is envisioned that this invention may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that changes in forms and details may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present application. It is therefore intended that the present invention is not limited to the exact forms and details described and illustrated herein but falls within the scope of the appended claims.

The terminology used herein is for describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the specification and relevant art and should not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein. Well-known functions or constructions may not be described in detail for brevity and/or clarity.

It will be understood that when an element is referred to as being “on”, “attached” to, “connected” to, “coupled” with, “contacting”, etc., another element, it can be directly on, attached to, connected to, coupled with or contacting the other element or intervening elements may also be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being, for example, “directly on”, “directly attached” to, “directly connected” to, “directly coupled” with or “directly contacting” another element, there are no intervening elements present. It will also be appreciated by those of skill in the art that references to a stricture or feature that is disposed “adjacent” another feature may have portions that overlap or underlie the adjacent feature. 

The invention claimed is:
 1. A device for dispensing disposable gloves consisting of an outer shell divided into two sections; the upper section of said outer shell stores the disposable gloves until the gloves are removed from the device via an aperture in the top cover of the outer shell and the lower section of said outer shell contains a flat plat under which is a compressed spring which is further attached to the bottom of the outer shell; as disposable gloves are removed from the device the compressed spring expands pushing the flat plate and the remaining gloves toward the device's top cover; the upper section of said outer shell is equipped with protrusions along the interior sides of the outer shell's upper section where said protrusions are designed to allow the flat plate to move upwards as the compressed spring expands and where said protrusions are designed to not allow the downward movement of the flat plate to recompress the spring.
 2. The device of claim 1, where said outer shell is cylindrical in shape.
 3. The device of claim 1, where said outer shell is square or rectangular in shape.
 4. A device for dispensing disposable gloves consisting of an outer shell divided into two sections; the upper section of said outer shell stores the disposable gloves until the gloves are removed from the device via an aperture in the top cover of the outer shell and the lower section of said outer shell contains a flat plat under which is a compressed spring which is further attached to the bottom of the outer shell; as disposable gloves are removed from the device the compressed spring expands pushing the flat plate and the remaining gloves toward the device's top cover.
 5. The device of claim 4, where said outer shell is cylindrical in shape.
 6. The device of claim 4, where said outer shell is square or rectangular in shape. 